Call me sentimental but I want to make an old school mixtape – you know … where you wait by the radio with a blank cassette tape loaded, hoping that the radio DJ plays your favorite songs and praying that your finger reflexes can hit the record button before too much of the song’s intro is cut off. On my mixtape I want Adele’s “Send My Love”, Jennie Rivera’s “La Chacalosa”, Justin Timerlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling”, and Diisigner’s “Panda” to play, so that I may make a gift, a mixtape, for our 2016 Emerging Artisans who just completed their Navajo Cultural Arts Certificate Program. Each song has a unique reference to one of these Emerging Artisans and together - I think this mixtape might just serve as the NCAP soundtrack for this year!

But first, let’s rewind to December 2015…..

The Center for Diné Studies (CDS) had the framework for a potentially amazing Navajo Cultural Arts Certificate Program – the curriculum was set, syllabi were drafted, instructors had been selected, and I had recently stepped up as the NCAP grant manager.

One fundamental piece was still missing – students. The CDS faculty, Dine College Administrative Team, and I had less than a month to find a cohort of students to launch this program. Navajo Times advertisements were put to press, emails flew through the internets, recruitment tables were set up and social media outreach began.

“This has been the most developmental period during my career as a silversmith. I am extremely grateful for this program and the opportunities/knowledge it has provided me. Thank You, a resounding thank you to the NCAP!”

"I am so glad and happy I took the certificate program. I am artistically and culturally more award of Native American and Navajo cultural arts."

"My fellow cohort group were the best group to have experience the time with throughout each semester. We have grown close and I feel like I have related to them as family now."

"This program was so great and I am happy to be part of it. I have big hop that this program will excel with every cohort."

As we graduate this cohort, I dedicate my mixtape to them. Every time I hear those songs, I will remember our field trips and car rides and I will think of family. I can't wait to see what each of them produce for our NCAP exhibit spaces throughout the year. Just because these Emerging Artisans have graduated, doesn't mean you won't see their work and faces around NCAP.... once a NCAP'er, always a NCAP'er!

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